Am I the only one looking at the Switch right now and wondering where all the multiplayer games are? The fact is that the Switch could outnumber its competitors in homes by a factor of 2 or more, but that'll never happen unless Nintendo somehow sees a wave of multiplayer enabled titles. MarioKart 8 Deluxe, Arms and Splatoon 2 are not enough.

I'm bringing this up because the Switch is now my hardware of choice for reviews. It will be getting my attention as I build up my library of major and minor releases from the eShop. If you don't watch Arlo - and you should - he makes a good point about the eShop going the way of Steam. It was heavily curated in its first year, but in order to keep up the flow of titles, they're relaxing their standards.

Nintendo is experiencing the uncomfortable growth of a being a popular platform again, but this time they don't have total control over the content being published. These are not the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo runs the very real risk of losing focus and having the userbase begin to lose interest in one of the system's defining features.

Multiplayer is a double edged sword, and Nintendo knows that, so it makes sense for them not to depend upon the functionality. On the other hand, with so few options, the Nintendo Online App is currently fluff that serious users are going to supplant with Discord. I know I do.

I get that Nintendo is banking on the family and single player experiences, but if a family can't together around games other than You Don't Know Jack... trivia has its place. We'll see what they propose to do with the eShop, because it needs an overhaul something fierce.

It feels a little weird to have amassed such a large library of Steam games just to not be able to review any of them. It's not practical time-wise, and I'm sure others here can agree Nintendo has made the impossible, possible for time constrained gamers. They have, but on the other hand, how are gamers going to find the good ones if there are no reviews and ratings? Like 'em or lump 'em, reviews provide feedback, and zero feedback is as telling as hundreds of thousands of assorted viewpoints.

I know what I'm after, and that's usually the obscure stuff, except when a big name franchise catches my attention as they occasionally do. So I'll be plugging away at my wishlist as finances permit, though [redacted] would be nice... nevermind me. I didn't say anything. >o>~~$

I'm fortunate to have a long list of excellent titles to paw through, though it might make my reviews a little stale if all I'm doing is praise them. That's silly of course, because even the good ones are going to let me down. Man, anticipating reviews is a new perspective for me, and a tad odd to boot.

On the note of strange geek hobbies, Did You Know I Perler Beads? Of course they're of popular game sprites, and though I don't sell them, there's always the chance I could. Y'know. Because. >o>~~$

honestgamer - April 19, 2018 (10:54 PM)
There are somewhere between 60 and 80 Switch games currently available for two or more players to enjoy simultaneously, counting the eShop's wide variety of retro and indie games. That's not bad in just a bit over a year of existence, I don't think!

I also don't think that platform is at risk of failing to offer a decent variety of multi-player experiences, not when most games that fit that bill are headed to the platform alongside their debut on other platforms... or are coming in the near future after making their debut elsewhere.

And the Switch library has a lot of unhealthy growing to do before it will be at risk of becoming another Steam. There are between 15 and 20 new games released most weeks, which is a manageable flow compared to Steam's several hundred during the same period. The variety is also pretty good, with relatively few clones compared to what you'll see on Steam or mobile.

Some gamers look at the Switch eShop and say "But how will I know what games are new?" I would encourage those confused individuals to go ahead and look through the featured "New Releases" category, which I think makes that pretty clear. There is also a category for people who want to easily find games they can play competitively with friends. Nintendo could further improve its interface, but a lack of interesting games is not the issue and that's good news for everyone.